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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoERIC ALBRECHT | DISPATCHFranklin County Environmental Court Judge Dan Hawkins has been on the job for four weeks. After hearing a case this week about a man with an illegal pet alligator, he said: “It struck me how different this is from when I was handling death-penalty cases.”

Dan Hawkins was prosecuting violent crimes against women and children when someone first
suggested that he consider a judgeship.

The suggestion came from his boss at the time, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien.

“There was a child-rape case, and the judge gave the defendant a light sentence,” recalled
Hawkins, who was an assistant prosecutor then. “It ticked me off. I was venting to Ron, and he made
an off-the-cuff remark that ‘maybe you need to run for judge.’ ”

The comment helped put Hawkins on a path that led to his appointment last month as judge of the
Franklin County Environmental Court.

His ceremonial swearing-in was yesterday, but he’s been on the job for four weeks, dealing with
blighted properties, tall grass and junk cars.

This week, he heard the case of a man cited for having an illegal pet: a 6-foot alligator.

“It struck me how different this is from when I was handling death-penalty cases,” Hawkins
said.

Although his experience was focused on prosecutions in murder and sex-offense cases, the
37-year-old Columbus native said the Environmental Court — the only one in the state since its
creation in 1991 — makes sense for him. The court has countywide jurisdiction over misdemeanor and
felony laws related to housing, the environment, buildings, health, fire, zoning, air pollution and
sanitation.

“Vacant, run-down houses are havens for drug abuse and prostitution,” said Hawkins, a believer
in the “broken windows” theory that neighborhoods in physical decline create a welcoming
environment for criminal behavior.

“If a neighborhood has signs that the government doesn’t care and the neighbors don’t care, it
attracts crime. As a person who came from a law-enforcement background, I see this as a way to
attack the problem from the beginning.”

Hawkins, a graduate of St. Francis DeSales High School, grew up wanting to be a police officer
but changed his mind at Bowling Green State University.

He graduated from Ohio State University College of Law in 2001 and was hired by the Franklin
County prosecutor’s office, where he had worked as an intern.

“When I graduated from law school, I told people that I wanted to do my first murder trial
before I turned 30,” he said. “I did a dozen before I was 30. At 27, I did my first death-penalty
trial.”

O’Brien put Hawkins in charge of the special-victims unit, which prosecutes crimes against women
and children, at the age of 29.

“From the beginning ... he was exemplary at every level,” O’Brien said. “Level-headed, sharp,
intelligent. And talk about temperament. He’s cool, calm and collected.

“He’s someone you look at and say, ‘This is the kind of guy who would make a good judge.’ ”

Defense lawyer R. William Meeks, who has represented people prosecuted by Hawkins, said the new
judge “will be a neutral, detached jurist who will look at things objectively.”

“Some defense attorneys might have a knee-jerk reaction that a prosecutor will be biased as a
judge,” Meeks said. “That’s not Dan.”

Hawkins, a Republican, was appointed by Gov. John Kasich to fill the vacancy created by Judge
Harland H. Hale’s retirement. Hale stepped down amid allegations by the Ohio Supreme Court
disciplinary counsel of judicial misconduct.

Hawkins must run in the November election for a chance to complete the term, which expires in
January 2016. His opponents are Frank Macke, a Democrat, and James W. Adair III, an
independent.

The oldest of his three children, a 6-year-old daughter, was born the day before Hawkins was to
deliver a closing argument in perhaps his highest-profile case: the murder trial of Adam Saleh,
accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 20-year-old model Julie Popovich and dumping her body
near Hoover Reservoir.

Hawkins got two hours of sleep in the maternity ward and still had a hospital band on his wrist
as he delivered his closing at the end of the two-week trial.

“When people ask about the pressure of taking this job, I think about that,” he said. “This isn’t
pressure.”